"The German cultural critic Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) is widely considered one of the most original analytical thinkers of the 20th century. His 1936 essay, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," revolutionized the way we look at the social function of art. The writings collected here use that essay - and the key Benjaminian notion of aura - as a springboard to apply Benjamin's insights to an unusually diverse selection of topics.

Whether investigating Benjamin's first invocation of aura after experiments with hashish, or re-examining the aesthetic theories of his intellectual ally Theodor W. Adorno, or newly illuminating the poetry of Wallace Stevens, the paintings of Jackson Pollock, and the digital "industrial" music of Coil, these essays cast a wide net."--BOOK JACKET.